Province purchases prime conservation land from Bowater

The province has reached an agreement with Bowater Mersey to purchase 25,000 acres of land, including this area around Mersey River, that will help Nova Scotia meet its goal to protect 12 per cent of its land mass. (Contributed)

UPDATED: 8:44 p.m.

LIVERPOOL — The province has bought 10,117 hectares of land from the Bowater Mersey Paper Co. as part of its aid package to help the troubled paper mill in Queens County.

The $23.7-million deal drew praise from conservationists and the native community, as well as from Bowater.

Brad Pelley, manager of the Bowater plant in Brooklyn, outside Liverpool, said the land purchase “was an absolutely essential element in the agreement with the province.”

“The proceeds from the sale will provide Bowater Mersey with liquidity cash flow that we need to sustain our operations.”

Premier Darrell Dexter said the government targeted the lands in five counties for their ecological significance and their cultural and economic importance to the Mi’kmaq community.

“The company was putting some of its best lands forward,” said Chris Miller, a conservation biologist with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. “It could have put clearcuts or less significant lands up, but it didn’t do that.”

Dexter said he believes the deal secures Bowater’s presence in Brooklyn.

“More than 2,000 families here in Liverpool and Queens County and throughout the South Shore and southwestern parts of this province depend on this mill for their livelihood,” the premier said. “It is as simple as that.

“I can’t imagine what would happen to the economy of this region and indeed to this entire province if this mill was to close permanently.”

A committee that included representatives from Bowater, the Mi’kmaq community and the provincial departments of environment, natural resources, finance, justice, municipal relations and aboriginal affairs jointly decided which lands should be included in the package.

“This is a very good-news day for the environment and for wildlife and for wilderness conservation in Nova Scotia,” said Ray Plourde, wilderness co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax. “It’s quite significant.”

He said the lands included in the deal are “quite spectacular” and he described them as “very important and critical areas to be protected.”

Miller agreed.

“The significant majority of the lands are of high conservation value,” Miller said. “They have old-growth forest, rare species, habitat that is significant wetlands, and frontage on important waterways.”

Those waterways include the Mersey, Medway and Shelburne rivers, which Miller said provide important habitat to rare plants, including Atlantic coastal plain flora. The land includes habitat that is crucial to mainland moose, which are endangered, and to Blanding’s turtles, which are deemed at risk.

He said about 80 per cent of the land included in Friday’s announcement is of “high conservation value, and we’ll be looking to the provincial government to make sure it is protected, and we have every reason to believe they will do that.”

Dexter said the province does not intend to sell the land or lease it back to Bowater for forestry. There is a clause in the contract that does allow the company to ask for a licence if it needs additional land, but it does not specifically apply to the purchased property.

The land acquisition will be finalized by March 31. The 29 parcels of property are spread over five counties, with the biggest chunk being in Annapolis County.

The purchase price was just under $2,350 a hectare.

The deal also includes about 400 hectares of importance to the Mi’kmaq community.

“This is a significant step for the Mi’kmaq,” Chief Gerard Julian, co-chairman of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, said of the government involving the Mi’kmaq in its plans to develop natural resources in the province.

The purchase includes land near the Bear River and Acadia First Nations and along the Mersey River, which Julian described as land of “archeological and cultural significance to the Mi’kmaq.”

“These parcels of land purchased today will also support future forestry options for Mi’kmaq and ensure that our people are considered in the economic growth and opportunities that are afforded to all Nova Scotians.”

At least half of the lands were already under consideration for purchase as part of the government’s commitment to protect 12 per cent of the land in Nova Scotia by 2015.

The province announced in November it is increasing its budget for buying ecologically significant land sixfold this year to $6.5 million.

Comments(12)

So, Resolute is getting $2,500 per hectare, this has to be at least double the actual value, for a large tract of woodland, or is there something I am missing? In any event, this $25 million plus the other $25 million loan the province has committed, comes to about $230,000 per job(220 jobs, after downsizing). This is insane.
Let's assume that everyone else involved has done their share, the union, management, suppliers, bankers, and yes we have been subsidizing power rates as well. If the mill isn't viable after all of that then it is a lost cause, throwing more money at it is just flogging a dead horse. Most of these employees can probably get other work, ship-building, or in Alberta, if it comes to that.
As Gail Lethbridge said in a recent column: "Good economic development is more than saving jobs or procuring them through payroll rebates. It’s about getting out front and creating policies that attract solid ideas, entrepreneurs and businesses. Jobs will grow from there" Absolutely right, but no one is listening.
On top of that, DD is adding $6.5 million to the provinces budget to buy more rocks and trees. Isn't it just marvellous that all of our bills are paid, no debt, no deficits, great health care, no ER shutdowns, no waiting lists, all of our roads in perfect shape, crime fought to a standstill....
The next election can't come soon enough.

Gee can the NDP buy my land for $950.00 an acre?
Trees, lake front,river, streams, lots of special plants and animals.
With an tax value of $150 an acre or $30,000, I will take the NDP value at $950 or $190,000.
Where do I sign?

Then the NDP can give more money to Resolute to buy more mills in Quebec and I can retire.

Nice spin, using a fed biologist to say what a good deal the province is getting. He says Bowater could have sold 'clear cut lands' but chose not to. Would 'clear cut lands' have fetched $25 million.....I should hope not.
This is simply another form of corporate welfare and working around the Softwood Lumber Agreement with the USA. By selling land to the Province of Nova Scotia at 'fair market value', there is no direct subsidy to the company but the company gets $25 million cash from the taxpayer.
Now if Bowater continues to sell off its NS land holdings to the Province, for cash, where does it harvest its fiber? Yep, you guessed it, from Crown lands! And probably from the same lands they sold to the Province.
Yes, right, a good for the taxpayer

This has about as much to do with the government wanting to protect the land as it does Colonel Saunders wanting to protect chickens! This is simply a way for Dexter to hand the mill another 25 million so that they can spend it on their mills in Quebec! If you think this has anything to do with land conservation, please call me. I have some land for sale cheap. A bit swampy but you can do something with it I am sure.

These types of investment in Nova Scotia for the people of Nova Scotia should continue. We need to invest more in the recovery and protection of Nova Scotia for us and not exclusively for the business sector.
But, how can we stop the next Conservative Government from "selling" these and other Nova Scotia assets in sweet heart deals to corporate interests?
Bring on the next election, this Governments good work will be rewarded !!

The commenter who asked when Mersey acquired these lands, from whom and for how much raises an interesting point. My guess is that the majority if not all of it once belonged to the public and was given to Mersey for little or no cost at some point in the past. The $950 per acre is a scandalous "price" to pay and the dippers know it. Time to get rid of the members in caucus with law degrees and get someone in there with a working knowledge of economics.

Next Dexter will be throwing my tax dollars at New Page in CB to start another dynasty of waste like Sydney Steel before it!

Ok fine, we have new land to sell back to the next Lyle Lanley (the guy who sold the monorail to Springfield in the Simpsons)for pennies per acre when they snap their fingers, but hey, I'm glad we tax payers have some land to walk on without worry of some justifiably upset, red faced land owner shooing us off it. Maybe I'll even be able to drive on it with my four wheeler or hunt on it....nah!!! Anyway, I hope when Oak Island becomes available again we (the Province) buy it and finally own land that we can use to attract tourists and make some money for this beleaguered province.

$950 per acre? Seems completely reasonable to me. I guess I should not expect anything more than constant complaining from the CH crowd. If only the commenters on here would just run for government everything would be fixed!